Dorothy Garlock is the bestselling author of over 50 historical romance novels, most of them set in the American West. She’s also written using pens names, including Dorothy Glenn, Dorothy Philips and Johanna Phillips. She was born in Texas, in 1942, but Oklahoma City is the place where she spent twenty five years. In 1955, she and her hubby moved to Iowa, and she had a career as a columnist and bookkeeper for a local newspaper and retired at 49 years. Before she decided to publish anything, she had written four manuscripts, and now she has over 20 million books in circulation.

Dorothy Garlock has written many series but she is perhaps well known for writing the ‘Jazz Age’ series. The first novel in this series is called ‘The Edge of Town’ and it tells the story of Julie Jones, a plainspoken girl working on her father’s hardscrabble farm. The Jazz Age that’s roaring through the US catches her unawares, sweeping a war veteran called Evan Jonson and a flapper called Birdie Stuart into her town in Missouri.

Life turns explosive when the summer starts to heat, and there is a terrifying crime wave threatening Evan’s relationship with Julie while Birdie’s schemes start tearing her family asunder. Soon everything that Julie needs and believes in is now at stake, including Evan’s liberty. Julie Jones now has to decide the extent to which she is willing to fight in order to save herself as well as the people she loves. The setting of the story is 1920s Missouri, and Julie’s mother died, leaving her with the sole responsibility of caring for everyone. There are several rape and murder plots going on, but the overall theme of the story is a relaxed and gentle vibe.

A World War 1 veteran called Evan Johnson has now returned to a small community in order to ensure that his drunkard of a father doesn’t ruin their farm, which was given to him as inheritance by his dying mother. This is the story of Evan and Julie working out how they can be a part of each other’s life. Both of them have secrets, and they fear that the skeletons in the closet would ruin any spark of romance brewing between them. The curious part is that Julie has 6 other siblings, and all their names start with a J. and the father’s name is Jethro.

When Julie’s mother died, she had to stop school in order to take care of everyone in the family and generally run the homestead. This is a job that she enjoys doing and she is content with her position in life. The unfortunate thing is that there are a string of rapes in the community and a new police office is brought in for purposes of cleaning up the township. The town drunk happens to be Evan’s father, and so residents are cautious of him since they believe like father like son.

The second book in the Jazz Age series is called ‘High on a Hill’ and it tells the story of Annabel Lee Donovan, who may be a bootlegger’s daughter but she’s also a lady. She is a slim brunette who is desperate for her dad to leave his bootlegging business and then settle down. Instead, when the family moves at night with assistance from henchmen Spinner and Boone, they discover that the new place was somehow different. The events that are soon to happen there will change the destiny of her young life.

Bathtub gin and speakeasies was the kind of scene that you would expect from the Jazz Age, but by 1925, whiskey running became a deadly turf war between criminals from Chicago to St. Louis. The whole country sensed the change, and the music beats came with the warning that good times will soon cease to be. However, something wonderful appears to be unfolding for Annabel, and she meets a handsome man called Corbin Appleby. This former sheriff in Fertile, Missouri appeared too good to be true and Annabel feared that he was working undercover to arrest her father. Despite these fears, she finds herself falling for the man, and it’s the first instance that she had ever felt this way.

The setting of the story being 1920 America makes for a fascinating story. The bad guy is hard to guess, and you always get surprised every time. This is a story of bootlegging and murder, and there are plenty of hillbillies to be found. This is a whodunit mystery coupled with romance and it will keep you turning the pages. The good thing about the novel is the way the author phenomenally describes 1920s America, and as a reader, you can see yourself living in this time period.

New characters are introduced in this story, and there are a few characters returning from book one. The lawman in book one, Corbin and Jack Jones make a return, and there are a few characters mentioned but they don’t play a very active role in the story. Spinner and Boone are the helpers of Annabel’s father, and they plan on doing one last bootlegging job before finally calling it quits. Unfortunately, things don’t pan out as they anticipated, and everyone isn’t so happy. There’s also a local boy who has set his sights on Annabel, and he won’t stop perusing her.

In the beginning, you might feel that this story doesn’t have a lot going for it in terms of a plot. But as you keep reading, you will find a story that is well written, and the characters have also been well developed. As a reader, you can find yourself relating with the main characters, and they are quite interesting. The secondary characters are also worth mentioning, including someone called Rainwater. The setting of the story is also very good, and it was during the Prohibition times where a young woman finds herself caught up in the midst of a family venture and the people who are trying to hijack it. All in all, High on a Hill is a great novel by Dorothy Garlock and if these two books are anything to go by, you can expect more of the good stuff from this author.

Rather than announce an upcoming book, we're paying tribute to our most popular author of the year from a survey we did. That author is Louise Penny, who writes the Inspector Gamache books. Trust me when I say this - this is a tremendous serious about a Chief Inspector in Quebec. Buy it for yourself, buy it as a gift - but get the first book in the series, Still Life and see why it's our most popular book series. Read more about it.

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Our character of the month is Inspector Armand Gache. We know people are looking for gifts for others this time of year - so make it easy. Get someone hooked on our most popular series! Seriously I don't mean to beat a dead horse but try this series out!

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Our author of the month is the Canadian author Louise Penny We’re paying tribute to Louise this month. Her Gamache series is simply incredible and each book just gets better. If you haven’t read it yet – start now!

Did You Know…

After graduating from school, Dan Brown then went to Amherst College to obtain a degree in English and Spanish. He graduated in the year of 1986 and then later spent numerous years trying to get himself established as a singer cum songwriter and pianist, but unfortunately was met with very minimal success.